Top 10 Universities for Electrical and Electronic Engineering

To see the latest version of this article, based on the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2017, click here.

Take a closer look at 2013’s top 10 universities for electrical and electronic engineering, based on the QS World University Rankings by Subject. They’re all world leaders – but which department best matches your own interests, and what electrical & electronic engineering research topics are being prioritized by this elite group?

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Research powerhouse MIT, currently number one in the overall QS World University Rankings, has many subject strengths – but its faculty of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS) is especially well known.  Notable EECS research areas currently include robotics, nanotechnology and quantum information processing, bio-EECS, cybersecurity and energy generation, storage and efficiency.

2. Stanford University

Stanford University traces its history of electrical engineering back to 1893, when the university’s first Professor of Electrical Engineering was instated with a focus on power station engineering. Today, Stanford’s faculty of electrical engineering divides its research scope into six categories: integrated electronic systems technology, photonics/EM/quantum, hardware/software systems, information systems, bio-electrical engineering, and energy/environment.

3. University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley)

UC Berkeley’s faculty of electrical engineering & computer science boasts around 120 start-ups founded by faculty and alumni – so far. Current research areas include physical electronics, micro/nano electro mechanical systems, artificial intelligence, computer architecture and engineering, and control, intelligent systems and robotics.

4. University of Cambridge

Close behind these three US tech giants is the UK’s University of Cambridge, where the electrical engineering faculty has a strong focus on photonics, with three research groups dedicated to this field. Other key research areas include: solid state electronics and nanoscale science; power and energy conversion; solar cells and their integration in power systems; design of electrical machines and drives; radio frequency and microwave power for industrial applications.

5. ETH Zurich

ETH Zurich’s department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering places a strong emphasis on biomedical engineering research, focusing on imaging technology and neural information processing. Other key areas include integrated systems, millimetre-wave electronics, electromagnetic fields and microwave electronics, automatic control, neuroinformatics and high-power electronic systems.

6. University of Oxford

At the University of Oxford, the relevant department is titled Electrical and Opto-electronic Engineering, reflecting a strong research focus on optics-related subjects. Research groups are currently working in the areas of optical communications, dynamic optics and photonics, microelectronic circuits and analogue devices, electrical power, communications, nano science and scanning optical microscopy.

7. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

UCLA’s electrical engineering department identifies three main strands of research: circuits and embedded systems, physical and wave electronics, and signals and systems. Within these broad areas, almost 40 different research groups are operating, focusing on topics ranging from speech processing and auditory perception to autonomous vehicles systems and instrumentation.

8. Imperial College London

Back in the UK at Imperial College London, research is organized into five areas: circuits and systems, control and power, optical and semiconductor devices, communications and signal processing, and intelligent systems and networks.

9. Harvard University

Harvard’s school of electrical engineering places a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary research, particularly in the areas of applied mathematics, applied physics, computer science and bioengineering. Examples of interdisciplinary research projects include quantum circuits design, optimal NMR spectroscopy using quantum control, signal processing for fast nanopore DNA sequencing, ultrafast silicon transceivers design using stochastic resonance and Casimir force generation using MEMS devices.

10. National University of Singapore (NUS)

Finally, Singapore’s flagship university joins ETH Zurich as the second non-US/UK university to make this top 10. At NUS’s Faculty of Electrical & Computer Engineering, major research areas are: communications and networks; control, intelligent systems and robotics; integrated circuits and embedded systems; microelectronic technologies and devices; microwave and radio frequency; power and energy systems; signal processing and new media.

About the QS World University Rankings by Subject

Published annually since 2011, the QS World University Rankings by Subject highlights the world’s top 200 universities across 30 different subjects. The ranking is compiled based on QS’s global surveys of academics and graduate employers, combined with data about research citations per faculty member.